This is the second phase of our online newsmagazine Internationalopinion.com that started in 2001 and ran for more than a dozen years in its first phase. Of course, we were subjected to terrible hacking and saw hundreds of our articles and other material disappear. Undeterred, we regrouped and continued on our journey with our
older daughterSujata resolutely and regularly handling the website and putting things with renewed energy.

The last five years is a different story, a story of moves, a story of sadness. My wife Sadhana was sick, became sicker, had surgery and passed away this year, May 15, 2016.

That was and is a big change in my world, our world. Married on October 8, 1961 we were together for 54 years, seven months and one week. It was a fairy-tale love story, regarded a role model by many; and for me, the ultimate bliss.

[Our daughter Sujata was also married on October 8. Granddaughter Tamanna was also planning for the same date but other wedding essentials were not available on that day. ]

International Opinion had slowed down as Sadhana slowed down. Later the site became silent. We had meanwhile moved from Fremont to our daughter’s home in San Leandro (both in Northern California). Then moved to Houston (Katy), Texas, to be near our younger daughter Seema who had twin girls in 2007. We were in Texas for five years and Seema and her
cardiologist husband Dr. Randeep Suneja took care of us.

After a couple years Sadhana became sick and sicker. Best of hospitals could not do much. Sujata and her daughter Tamanna Roashan kept visiting us. Sujata spent more time in 2012 with her mom than at her work in Northern California. Surgery of left foot further complicated matters and Sadhana seemed to have given up. We did not and kept fighting. She was in and out of a dozen hospitals and
nursing homes in just one year.

That was indeed terribly frightening – and totally devastating.

We had to move back to San Leandro to be with Sujata and her husband Mujtaba who devoted themselves, totally, to care for Sadhana – and me. She was in a
nursing home where we celebrated her 75th birthday on October 14, 2015. Seema flew from Houston to be with us for the event.

Meanwhile International Opinion continued to be silent and Sadhana continued to be sick, in and out of hospitals and
nursing homes every three or four months. On Tamanna’s insistence, we moved from San Leandro to Los Angeles area in Southern California where she had moved a year back to pursue her career as a celebrity make-up artist.

We are a very loving and close-knit family and Sujata decided to leave her very satisfying job at
Kaiser PermanenteHospital and we four moved with a sick Sadhana to be as near Tamanna as possible. We are just six minutes away from her.

It was in January this year. However, things did not improve and Sadhana’s visits to hospital became monthly till the fateful day, May 15, when she passed away. Our care and prayers couldn’t do anything; the doctors also could do nothing though they tried their best. It was an unexpected and quick end in just 18 days from 27th April when we were asked to take her immediately to the Emergency Department.

We never expected this sudden development.

Sadhana never recovered, never came home.

This became an extremely sad chapter in our lives and continues to remain so. It has created a big void in our lives and so our child, International Opinion, seemed doomed forever though for years we had been keeping the website alive with regular payments.

I never thought the website would come alive one day, but it had to happen.

The
silver lining was shown by Tamanna’s announcement of her pregnancy and her total belief that her Nani (grandma) is coming back to her. That started changing the scenario. Though we still miss our multi-talented Sadhana badly, we
slowly started to feel that “the show must go on.”

A little bit about Sadhana:

Painting, writing poetry and articles, radio talks/programs, sewing, knitting, embroidery,
crochet, sports, singing, cooking,
hospitality and many more skills have been the hallmark of Sadhana’s glorious life. Many of her poems and articles were printed in newspapers and magazines and broadcast on radio. Her paintings and sketches have been exhibited at several places in India and abroad. Many of her paintings found special places
in homes and offices of
dignitaries, both Indian and foreign. She has beautifully painted and sketched many historic and other memorable places during her travels. Sadhana collected, edited and produced a book of poems about the war of
liberation of Bangladesh in 1971- also contributed one of her poems.

A collection of her poems will be published shortly to remind us of her talent, sensitivity,
compassion, love and her humanity.

And the new phase of Internationalopinion.com is the result of those feelings and strength, that resolve and inspiration we used to get from Sadhana. Sujata, once again, did all the hard work and plunged wholeheartedly for this re-birth. Mujtaba joined in with his computer expertise at the critical moments.

And so, here is the newly revived, second phase of IO, dedicated to the memory of Sadhana Bhatnagar.

We are sure, she would have liked us to quickly revive IO and to see me again devote my time and energy to do what I have been passionately and lovingly doing all my life.

While Indian men’s cricket team was winning their second T20 match to achieve a historic series win against South African men, Indian women could not lag behind, though not much heralded.

However, they recorded a confident 3-1 win to clinch the T20 series by 54 runs. The veteran Mithali Raj and the much younger Jemimah were among the many Indian stars. Mithali won both the ‘Player of the match and of the series’ with a total of 192 runs.

The very interesting thing is when Mithali was playing at the national level and shining Jemimah was not yet born. She is just 17 and was playing in her second match.

The Indians had earlier beaten South African women in the One Day Internationals (ODI) They became the first women’s cricket team to win both the formats in South Africa.

In beautiful Cape Town (where Indian men’s team Captain Virat Kohli and his actress wife Anushka Sharma celebrated a part of their honeymoon last month, and Kohli continued to wind up the long series), Indian women recorded a 'historic double' outclassing their South African opponents by 54 runs in the fifth and final Twenty20 International, Feb. 24, the day Indian men’s team also beat the South Africans by 7 runs in a thrilling match.

In contrast, the Indian women had a comfortable win getting their opponents out for 112 runs. India had scored 166 runs when they batted.

Indian women had beaten the South African women in ODI, 2-1, to bag the series.

In the final T20 match the veteran Mithali Raj scored 62 off 50 balls and the young Jemimah Rodrigues made 44 off 34 balls to reach par score of 166 for four wickets in 20 overs.

South Africa were skittled out for 112 in 18 overs; old-timer Rumeli Dhar (3/26 in 4 overs) returning to the Indian side after six years made her splendid mark in the second match. Shikha Pandey took 3 wickets for 16 runs in her 4 overs and was the best bowler. Left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad also took 3 wickets in 3 overs giving 26 runs.

Times of India adds: The win also showed that Indian women's performance in the ICC ODI World Cup wasn't a mere flash in pan and the women showed little rustiness even though they played their first series in seven months. The big positive was winning a T20 series - a format where the Indian women have not done well traditionally.

"It was a two-paced track to bat on but it became easier to play shots at the later stages. But it's always nice to be among runs," Raj, who scored 192 runs in four innings with three half-centuries, said after the match. She won both 'Player of the Match and Series' awards for her consistent scores.

Skipper Harmanpreet on her part spoke about how the series win will bolster their confidence as they get ready to take on Australia and England at home.

Mithali started with a couple of boundaries off seamer Shabnim Ismail before launching onto medium pacer Masabata Klaas. She hit another couple of sixes - one off off-break bowler Raisibe Ntozakhe and other off rival captain Dane van Niekerk - both over long-on.

She first hit a boundary and then lofted her over long-off for the first six.

Along with 17 year old Jemimah, Mithali added 98 runs for the second wicket.

The most talked about teenager in women's cricket circuit, Jemimah played her first innings of note at the international level and despite being pint-sized, and she packed a punch in her shots. She also punished Ntozakhe hitting her through cover for a boundary and also a six over mid-wicket.

When Ismail came for her second spell, the teen sensation lofted her effortlessly over long-on for a six.

Interestingly, Mithali had made her one day international debut (June, 1999), 15 months before Jemimah was born in September 2000.